Driving in Silence

I remember the first time it happened. It was at the 2000 FCIAC Championship football game.

It was incredibly dramatic. A missed extra point and a missed field goal gave New Canaan the title.

I had literally zero energy driving away from Boyle Stadium that night. I felt empty, exhausted, and incapable of turning the radio on. I couldn't really figure out why.

Then it hit me. I had given every ounce of me and the game wore me out.

Fast forward nearly 19 years later. I knew it would happen. Around 2:00 this afternoon, I told Chris Erway that very thing.

"I'm going to leave it all in the booth. I'll be shot tonight."

Darien beat Greenwich 27-21 in a strange game. Not great. Not even necessarily good. A game that I'll have to break down on Monday on Doubleheader.

A game that ended with a very questionable holding call and a fourth-down spike. That's just a small sample. There was far more to this affair than that.

(EDIT: Let us be certain that Darien won the game and there shall be no question of that. They made the plays and won the game.)

It ended with such a dud. Regardless of the winner, it missed the dramatic coda that we wanted. It would have been great to see it come down to a final play. But it didn't.

My heart breaks for Greenwich quarterback James Rinello, who gave everything in the effort but will be remembered for how it ended. That's probably unfair. It's a team game and there's certainly more to the story than just that.

Sports isn't kind in that way, but Greenwich and Darien can do a lot more between now and a possible (likely?) rematch in December.

I probably have no business feeling this way. I stood and talked for three hours. Damian Andrew and DAF Media basically fell over themselves, sweating every small detail.

The players gave everything.

So did the coaches.

I talked.

Still, I got to my car and just drove after it was over. I never turned on the radio. I never put a podcast on my phone to listen to.

I simply went home.

Even now, I'm sitting home slightly overwhelmed and exhausted. Sports, at its best, does that to you. You bring everything you have to the microphone and then just collapse when it's over.

That's how I feel tonight.

That's how I felt back in 2000 when I couldn't figure out why I was so lethargic.

I'm going to bed soon.

We'll talk about this game for some time.